PROJECTS

• Port Pirie
• Iron Ore in South Australia
• Peculiar Knob
• Hawks Nest

• Penrhyn Coal
• Northern Gawler Projects

Hawks Nest

OVERVIEW

The Hawks Nest Project is located in central South Australia 720 kilometres northwest of Adelaide and 120 kilometres southest of Coober Pedy. EL 4248 and MCs 3809 (Kestrel) and 3810 (Buzzard) are 100% owned by WPG and cover an area of 398 square kilometres. Topography is flat with vegetation comprising patches of mulga scrub, salt bush and blue bush. Good access is provided by the Stuart Highway and 5 km of well formed gravel road. The Adelaide to Darwin railway line is situated 55 km to the west.

GEOLOGY & MINERALISATION

The local geology at Hawks Nest is interpreted as an up-thrown fault block of Palaeoproterozoic metasediments including BIF horizons. The BIFs are largely concealed under Cretaceous sediments and recent colluvium but are the dominant source for a 25 kilometre long east-north-easterly trending magnetic anomaly. Detailed magnetic and gravity surveys in combination with drilling have shown there are three prominent strike ridges of magnetite BIF separated by non-magnetic metasediments.

Iron ore mineralisation within EL 4248 at Hawks Nest occurs in eight seperate deposits of varying size and grade that occur over an area of approximately nine kilometres east to west, and four kilometres north to south. Four different types of mineralisation have been identified by exploration work to date.

• High grade haematite (> 60 percent iron) as at the Buzzard prospect, in the forms of tectonically brecciated and secondary enriched haematite BIF.
• Large low grade primary or unenriched magnetite BIF bodies, occurring as un-oxidised sections of the BIF horizons, with widths of 150 metres to 500 metres and interpreted depths of 500 metres to 1000 metres.  Grades are commonly 35 per cent to 40 per cent iron, in a very fine grained matrix.
• Restricted zones of higher grade magnetite, with some grades in excess of 60 per cent iron.
• Broad zones of haematite BIF with consistent iron grades in the range 35 to 45 percent.

The fine grained magnetite mineralisation at Hawks Nest is quite similar to the taconite iron ores of the Mesabi Ranges in Minnesota and Michigan, and of some of the mineral resources in the Midwest region of Western Australia.

EXPLORATION AND RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

The Kestrel and Buzzard prospects were subjected to intensive exploration, resource definition drilling and related work over the period from 1995 to 2001. Five of the other prospects, Goshawk, Harrier, Eagle, Falcon, and Kite had only a few exploratory drill holes.

WPG has advanced the Hawks Nest project with three programs of additional exploration drilling and resource evaluation. This work has located a new small deposit of high grade DSO haematite mineralisation and a large deposit of haematite BIF at the Tui prospect. In-fill and exploration drilling by WPG at the Buzzard prospect has enabled a significant up-grading of the resource of this high grade haematite deposit.

Current resources within the Hawks Nest Project are as follows:

Buzzard DSO Haematite Deposit

Tui DSO Haematite Deposit

Haematite BIF Deposits

Magnetite Deposits